Entries by Spencer Burton

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Setting Up a New Real Estate Financial Model – Date and Period Headers Plus Formatting (Updated Apr 2022)

We’ve spent a lot of time here discussing and sharing different real estate models, and we’ve received a ton of feedback from our readers as a result. In some of that feedback we’ve received, several people have asked what period and date rows I prefer to use and how I setup a brand new model. […]

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S-Curve Forecasting in Real Estate Development (Updated Sep 2021)

One of the reasons Michael and I blog, is to force ourselves to be continually learning. I built the first version of my real estate waterfall model, because I wanted to better understand the mechanics of modeling an equity waterfall with IRR hurdles. Michael started his Understanding Leases Series, because there were nuances of modeling […]

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Bite-Sized CRE Lessons – A.CRE 30 Second Video Tutorials

As we continue to build out our A.CRE 101 series and our Glossary of Commercial Real Estate terms, we’ve started to supplement these initiatives with short (<30 second) video clips on how to do various CRE calculations and modeling tasks in Excel. You can think of these 30 second tutorials as bite-sized lessons in real […]

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Custom Function to Auto-Populate Latitude and Longitude in Excel (Updated 2021)

When analyzing real estate investments in Excel, it’s often necessary to include the latitude and longitude coordinates of the properties we’re modeling. To do this, most of us open up Google Maps, or some other mapping tool, and find the coordinates that way. Others use a latitude/longitude lookup tool such as latlong.net to find what they need. However, these tools […]

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Tutorials for A.CRE Value-Add Apartment Acquisition Model

As promised, I’m following up the release of the A.CRE Value-Add Apartment Acquisition model with a series of walk-throughs and tutorials to help you better understand the various elements of the model. The tutorials start with the basics – a guide to getting started, and then get progressively more advanced. If you’ve already visited the […]

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Keyboard Shortcuts I Use Constantly When Modeling in Excel (Formatting)

The more you model real estate in Microsoft Excel, the faster and more accurate you become – and hopefully as a consequence the more valuable you become to real estate employers and investors. Part of the process of mastering real estate financial modeling in Excel, is learning to put the mouse aside and rely on […]

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Using Boolean Logic to Model Multiple Generations of Tenant Improvements

Arguably the most powerful, and least appreciated and understood, functionality in Excel is its use of boolean logic. Or in other words, the use of TRUE and FALSE binary logic. This form of logic can be used to dramatically simplify formulas in real estate financial modeling, ease auditing work, and speed up the modeling process. […]

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Apartment Acquisition Model with Monte Carlo Simulation Module (Updated Jan 2021)

We have a few stochastic modeling tools for real estate on the website, but none as robust as this Apartment Acquisition Model with Monte Carlo Simulation Module. I originally built the model in 2016 by taking my standard apartment acquisition model, and assigning probabilities to various assumptions. I then added a Monte Carlo Simulation module […]

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Using Excel’s New LAMBDA Feature to Create Custom Functions for Real Estate Financial Modeling

In December 2020, Excel rolled out a new featured called LAMBDA as part of the Office Insiders (i.e. beta) program. This feature allows the user to create custom functions, which can greatly reduce duplicative formulas and reduce errors. Well over the holiday break, I took sometime to learn how to use this feature. And I’m […]